2002, 1 hr 50 min., Rated PG-13 for violence and some language.�Dir: Doug Liman. Cast: Matt Damon (Jason Bourne), Franka Potente (Marie Kreutz), Chris Cooper, Brian Cox, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Nykwana Wombosi), Julia Stiles (Nicolette), Clive Owen (The Professor).

The Bourne Identity is just what I look for in mid-June: An above-average, entertaining summer flick with no political or social undertones. Yep, just a bona fide spy thriller with some good action, cool gadgets and the requisite babe. And this time, they picked one of my favorite babes.

I loved Franka Potente in Run Lola Run, and even more so here. She's not a centerfold beauty. Good. She's better. She brings European style, has a dimpled chin, a quirky smile and wild hair. She's a fun beauty, and oh yeah, she can act, too!

Matt Damon's a right likable fella. He pulls off the action pretty well and is so calm, cool and collected under duress that you admire him and forget that Ben Affleck gets all the action parts in big-budget pictures nowadays. I guess he doesn't want to be a pretty-boy on screen all the time, unless he can kick butt occasionally, too. I don't blame him. The tough guys get all the chicks. And he gets to do some actual acting at the same time, which is actually important since he has amnesia for � of the story and doesn't know how or why he has such espionage skills.

The car chase through Paris has received fair press, and for good reason. It's an old-fashioned chase, just like the film feels like an old-style spy flick. No explosions just for the heck of it, just real dents and your natural implausible weaving through back alleys and one-way streets, followed by genuine reactions. I love how Damon and Potente stare at each other in "what the heck was that" shock afterwards.

One negative: Why is Julia Stiles in this? They could've had any unnamed (read: cheap) actress do her part and the film wouldn't have missed a beat, and she became a distraction.

As for the rest of the supporting cast, thumbs up all around. The secret CIA bad guy is Chris Cooper (Wes Bentley's dad in American Beauty), full of steely-eyed nastiness. His boss, played by Brian Cox, is even better, and the other super-agents out to get Damon are dutifully lacking of emotion and full of mission. And when Damon meets them head-on you sit up.

Overall, The Bourne Identity has clever adventure, suspense, intrigue, and best of all, it isn't overly slick. Just a couple of hours of summer fun. Just what I asked for.